Rumour, speculation and occasional over-optimistic announcements still swirl around a possible Baldur’s Gate III, but the indefinite wait for a follow-up to the beloved series of Bioware RPGs has now yielded one strange fruit. Comics company IDW – who specialise in licensed fare such as Transformers, Ghostbusters and Star Trek – are publishing an official Dungeons & Dragons comic called Legends of Baldur’s Gate. And just look who it stars – ageing RPG gonks’ favourite big-hearted warrior-dunce Minsc, together of course with Boo, his occasionally uncomfortably concealed hamster of dubious mysticism.
Official solicitation for the series:

Evil, meet my sword! Sword, meet evil! Generations have passed since the original Heroes of Baldur’s Gate saved the city and the Realms. Now a new threat rises and an unlikely group of misfits are thrust into adventure with MINSC, the legendary Ranger do-gooder with a heart of gold, brain of lead, and hamster of pronounced wisdom.

Minsc was the ur-Bioware-Companion, the template from which the likes of Canderous Ordo and Urdnot Wrex from formed. The idea of having him back, in some form, is lovely, though I do fear the joke wearing thin if he goes centre-stage – either from too many hamster puns or because there’s a need to add incongruous complexity to him. Also, um, hamsters only live a couple of years. That’s going to present narrative issues, right? Oh right, miniature giant space hamster. Yeah. Of course. Totally. That changes everything.

Sounds as though ole’ Minsc has been plucked out his usual timeline in order to justify being around for the events of the comic, according to an interview with write Jim Zub:

“He’s this slightly foolish ranger who is very heroic and very courageous and dives into trouble before considering the ramifications. He’s a character that has built a cult following over the years since the video game, until we came up with an ingenious way to be able to bring him into the present, 100 years forward from the events of the video game, and have him join our group. In this case, if you’ve played the video games, you’ll get something really cool out of it, you’ll be really thrilled to see this old fan-favorite, but if you’ve never read the stories or played the video games before, you can just jump in and this character is quite appealing and straightforward and you’ll understand what he’s about right from the get-go.”

Dungeons & Dragons: Legends of Baldur’s Gate, written by Jim Zub and pencilled by Max Dunbar, is out in October. It’s part of the D&D 40th anniversary celebrations (which include a new edition of the RPG rules).

Don’t insult D:OS. It has much more in common with Ultima (the world design, freedom) and Temple of Elemental Evil (AWESOME combat system). Plus, the choices in D:OS actually matter and have consequences.

People keep saying this and it’s just not true. D:OS is nothing like Ultima. World interactivity pales in comparison to even Elder Scrolls games. D:OS’s needlessly complex character optimzation, combat strategy and randomized loot grinding are the antithesis of every Ultima game I’ve ever played. Don’t even get me started on paper rock scissors conversations.

D:OS is a good RPG, but I wish people would stop saying it’s the new Ultima. It’s its own thing. I think it’s very fair to compare it to BG, definitely moreso than every Ultima game ever made.

I lie, of course. The Dark Eye system was (and, from what I’ve seen in Blackguards, still is) too complex. But D:OS ain’t. There are not that many skills, the usual amount of attributes and relatively few traits. There’s one more slot for equipment than usual, but I haven’t found anything to put there yet, and even then, that’s not really complex.

Both systems have the very desirable quality of allowing people as much time as they need to carefully consider their options so as to come up with effective strategies and efficiently organise their actions. For example, if this was a real-time-with-pause internet, you could’ve really taken your time and come up with a much better argument on turn-based combat’s behalf than you actually did.

Comments do have a pause function, though. It’s not like this modern real-time speaking face to face stuff at all, because you can stop typing whenever you want and have a think. Only after you click on “Opinion, away!” are you fully committed to your verbal strategery.

Turn based are great for people who can only think of strategy in simplistic discrete unit of time. Real time with pause are better for people who want the maximum complexity and challenge. Beat Dragon Age 2 on nightmare mode without using consumable and we’ll talk.

I highly disagree. In a RTWP, if you see an enemy wind up for something, you can pause and plan your moves. In TB combat, you have to plan ahead for that attack to come, because once it’s the enemy’s turn, there’s no way to stop him.

I’m not against RTWP – both it and TB have advantages and drawbacks – but you can’t dismiss turn-based combats with that simplistic and generalising an argument.

I don’t know if people realize this or not, but giant space hamsters are a for real actual part of the canon of Baldur’s Gate – it’s Faerun + some Spelljammer supplements (you can kill a Spelljammer ship captain in Ust Natha).

Imagine a big men in front of a keyboard saying this:
This is silly! Buttons are not how one escapes dungeons! I would smash the button and rain beatings liberally down on the wizard for playing such a trick!

He is a honest berseker. Act first, ask question later.

So is like Forest Gump with a rage problem that is sort of very skilled and powerfull with a 2H.

The dude on the draw on the top have a rogue-ish smiley. So thats not minsc. Mincs will never smiley like that, except if he see somebody head roll doing something funny, and Boo comment on it.

Don’t be hatin’ on Minsc. He was one of the most memorable characters in the series. Simple, yes–but consistent and dependable in both battle and role as comic relief. Dunno how the comic will turn out, but hey–it’s an interesting experiment.

Oh, and yes, there is nothing quite like running through a den of stinking evil with a brain-addled berserker and his miniature giant space hamster as he hacks through beasties with a smartass and very vocal sentient sword. Bring on the cheese.

”I will join with you, complete stranger, and fight your enemies without question for as long as I am needed. Without pay. On one condition, we must take a day out to save my traveling companion who was captured by a trivial band of Gnolls.”

Nothing sadder to me than having nostalgia pimped out for new content. Adding to Minsc only taints the memory. He is complete. Its misadventure to explore the character, if you can call him that, outside of his appropriate context, ie. my memory playing a particular game far in the past.

I prefer homage to derivative nostalgia personally. Homage doens’t mean another berzerker with a hamster either.

Dunno, he could conceivably start the Way of the Blessed Hamster, where young barbarians learn to temper their rage into a weapon and listen to the wisdom of their rodent companions. It’d be a bit of a farcical story line, but not entirely impossible in the setting

I think it would’ve be more interesting if they explored the story of Minsc before Daenerys was kidnapped. She specifically mentions in her post-rescue conversation that Minsc got ‘hit on the head ‘ and has been acting funny ever since. Always have I wondered how he would have behaved without this incident.

The thing I loved about the rescue Daenerys mission was that if you left it long enough eventually Minsc would lose his temper and start clobbering you. Lets just say I started to pay a lot more attention to what my party members were saying after that ass-whooping.